


Arrangement

by GateofMemory



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur loves merlin, Asexual Merlin (Merlin), M/M, Mentions of Arthur/OFC, No Dialogue, basically quarantine-inspired writing about hugs, heterosexual-homoromantic Arthur, merlin loves Arthur, or something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24455320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GateofMemory/pseuds/GateofMemory
Summary: Merlin covers for Arthur when he meets pretty girls, makes up silly excuses to Uther’s face and goes willingly to the stocks every time because Merlin knows and Arthur knows and Uther doesn’t know (and Gaius knows, in his own way) that at the end of the day it will be just the two of them again, safe and warm and lovedOr, the hug we didn't get in the show
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 107





	Arrangement

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first non-academic piece of writing in years and I'm reveling in it. Merlin is singlehandedly getting me through my months of solitary quarantine, but I own no part of the show or the characters!

Merlin covers for Arthur when he meets pretty girls, makes up silly excuses to Uther’s face and goes willingly to the stocks every time because Merlin knows and Arthur knows and Uther doesn’t know (and Gaius knows, in his own way) that at the end of the day it will be just the two of them again. Merlin will make the children of the lower town laugh as he pulls indulgent faces under their ever-gentler barrage of old vegetables, and Arthur will scold him with equal gentleness later, offering his apologies that Merlin never accepts because they both know the prince needs this sometimes, needs to blow off the steam that sparring with his knights cannot help. Merlin doesn’t understand the feeling, he never has and he thinks never will, but he covers for Arthur when he recognizes the lingering glances at visiting ladies who have their own needs that are never quite met. 

The...arrangement?...works for everyone, and Arthur helps rinse the fruit from Merlin’s hair, the gentle, innocent touch of sword-callused fingers in raven-black locks their own version of intimacy. Arthur is always more relaxed after his trysts, voice syrupy and low, and Merlin is happy from his games with the children in the sunny lower town. He never worries about losing this to a lady, Arthur’s closeness and the bond they have, because Merlin loves Arthur deeply no matter whose bed he spends a few nights in and Arthur loves Merlin fiercely no matter how frustratingly bumbling he acts in front of the king. Some day, maybe, he’ll thank his father for the spontaneous assignment of his manservant-turned-something...Merlin calls them sweethearts, sometimes, and Arthur just calls him darling, and they’re not quite partners because that’s a term for merchants’ business relationships and peasants’ strategic marriages and Arthur will always, in his very soul, be royalty of Camelot.

Eventually he will take a wife, though she will be given her own lands and castle and the freedom to love who she wishes as long as she can bring herself to bed Arthur, for an heir, for appearances, for Arthur’s needs...But. The only sweetheartdarlingpartner in any arrangement will be Merlin. It will always be Merlin. It will only be Merlin. It is Merlin now, turning his head to kiss Arthur’s wrist where it has come to rest on his shoulder. His nose wrinkles at the tangy scent, from the tomatoes behind his ear, most likely, and Arthur’s drowsy glance catches the movement before Merlin turns again for a final rinse in Gaius’s wooden bowl on the table.

Gains himself - faithful, respectful, unflappable Gaius - is dozing over a woody tome by the fireplace. His soft snores hitch slightly as Merlin slides the bowl away along the table and some glass vials tinkle quietly. Arthur’s heart aches with how safe, warm, loved he feels, here in this corner of the castle, and he must make a sound because then Merlin is bringing his face out of the worn flaxen cloth he is using to dry his head and looks at Arthur. And Arthur knows he is a prince, he is going to be a king, he knows and it does not bother him that he will always be on guard in his own chambers, that there is no way to keep the cavernous stone council halls and throne room warmed entirely and that as he has aged his father has become more of his king and master and this anxious, cold, distant life he has grown in is not wrong, it is the way it must be in order to stay alive as the crown prince of Camelot...but. 

Safe, warm, loved. 

And in this corner of the castle Gaius shifts and sleeps and Arthur is sated from his evening with pretty Lady Marie and he turns away from Gaius to the man’s all-but-son who is still looking at him and the sighs from some deep part of his being and Merlin’s eyes go a little crinkly and his mouth goes a little soft and suddenly Arthur has an armful of safe, warm, loving boy. 

Their hugs have changed, as their...partnership?...has changed, as they have changed, from bruising and fast and hard angles, with sharp words and wit and desperate confusion, to what they have now. They changed slowly, as Arthur discovered and catalogued what makes Merlin smile with his whole body, and what makes him blush warm and sigh, and also where his hands make him nervous and withdraw with an apology in his eyes - but never on his tongue, not anymore, Arthur will never let him say sorry for knowing what he doesn’t want. And Merlin has done his own cataloguing too, in quiet observations from behind-and-slightly-to-the-right of Arthur’s throne, his seat at the table, his meetings with the king, where the prince stands solidly in the place of what he believes, and so when their hugs change Merlin approaches Arthur’s body with surety and instead of wrapping the prince close and holding him, he wraps himself in the embrace of the knight because Arthur is strength, protection, solidity to his very core and neither needs nor wants to be anything else, as a prince, as a man, as a sweetheart. And Merlin adores him for it.

A log splits apart in the fire. Merlin spares a glance, just to see it isn’t in danger of rolling out to the floor, but it is not, and he returns his still-damp forehead to Arthur’s broad shoulder while they stand in the safe, warm, chambers breathing together and Merlin spreads his physician-servant palms, one on Arthur’s back and one on his chest, and Arthur cradles him in his prince-knight arms, and they feel safe, and warm, and loved.

**Author's Note:**

> In 1,500 years Arthur will test the phrase homoromantic-heterosexual, rolling the words in his mouth like he's trying to identify a familiar taste, and Merlin will smile quietly at the term asexual and it won't make any difference because in all that time it's just been Arthur and Merlin and those are just labels to add - prince, servant, sweethearts, darling, betrotheds, intendeds, friends


End file.
